Revival of a Cleavage? Party Competition on Religion and Secularism in Western Europe in Times of Religious Pluralization

分裂的复兴？

• 批准号: 452185237
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Matthias Kortmann
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Fach Politikwissenschaften
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/452185237?language=en
• 关键词: Revival; Cleavage; Party; Competition; Religion

Until recently, political scientists expected religion to become less relevant in West European politics and, consequently, the religious-secular cleavage in party competition to disappear eventually. This expectation was particularly due to secularization processes which have proceeded in Western Europe since the 1960s. However, recent party conflicts imply that the question of a role of (organized) religion in the public sphere seems to have become a contested issue between parties again. This can be particularly traced back to increasing religious pluralization or, more concretely, to the establishment of Muslim communities and the enhanced visibility of their religion in societies which have portrayed themselves as Christian and/or secular. Therefore, the new debate is not only about the legitimacy of the role of religion(s) in the public and political sector. Instead, the visible presence of the ‘new’ religion of Islam has also caused a party-political discourse on the more fundamental issue of national cultural identities. In this discourse, both parties that have acted as representatives of a ‘Christian’ worldview and their ‘secularist’ counterparts have been prompted to (re)position themselves.This research project analyses the conflict between religion and secularism in West European party competition since the beginning of the 21st century against the background of religious pluralization. The main question is to what extent actor constellations along the religious-secular party-political cleavage have been characterized by continuity or change. In this context, the focus is on party conflicts which refer to the legitimacy of a public and political role of religion(s). Furthermore, the project examines how these conflicts also reflect (re)negotiations about national cultural identities and the role religion(s) and/or secularity are supposed to play as identity markers. The project employs both quantitative and qualitative methodology examining, first, to what extent issue attention towards these issues has changed during the period considered, and second, what positions involved (members of) parties have held over time. Moreover, the project chooses a comparative approach analyzing how party competition on ‘religion and secularism’ has differed in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, thus in four countries with divergent relevant context factors. Whereas, all of these countries have been confronted with increasing religious pluralization since 2000, the process of secularization has advanced cross-nationally to a different extent. Furthermore, the countries differ regarding the traditional role of the religious-secular cleavage as well as the significance of right-wing populist parties in their party systems.

直到最近，政治学家还预计宗教在西欧政治中的重要性会降低，因此，政党竞争中宗教与世俗的分歧最终会消失。这一期望特别是由于自1960年代以来西欧一直在进行的世俗化进程。然而，最近的政党冲突表明，(有组织的)宗教在公共领域的作用问题似乎再次成为政党之间争论不休的问题。这特别可以追溯到宗教日益多元化，或者更具体地说，可以追溯到穆斯林社区的建立及其宗教在那些把自己描绘成基督徒和/或世俗的社会中的更高能见度。因此，新的辩论不仅仅是关于宗教(S)在公共和政治领域中作用的合法性。相反，伊斯兰教“新”宗教的明显存在也引发了一场关于民族文化认同这一更根本问题的政党政治讨论。在这一话语中，作为基督教世界观和世俗主义代表的两党都被促使重新定位自己。本研究项目在宗教多元化的背景下，分析了21世纪以来西欧政党竞争中宗教与世俗主义的冲突。主要的问题是，沿着宗教-世俗政党-政治分裂的演员星座在多大程度上具有连续性或变化的特征。在此背景下，重点是政党冲突，指的是宗教作为公共和政治角色的合法性(S)。此外，该项目还考察了这些冲突如何也反映了关于国家文化认同以及宗教(S)和/或世俗应该作为身份标志所扮演的角色的谈判。该项目采用定量和定性方法，首先审查在审议期间对这些问题的关注在多大程度上发生了变化，其次审查所涉缔约方(成员)在一段时间内担任了什么职位。此外，该项目选择了一种比较的方法，分析在德国、荷兰、瑞典和英国，即在相关背景因素不同的四个国家，政党在“宗教和世俗主义”上的竞争是如何不同的。然而，自2000年以来，所有这些国家都面临着宗教日益多元化的问题，世俗化进程在不同程度上推进了跨国家的进程。此外，两国在宗教-世俗分裂的传统作用以及右翼民粹主义政党在其政党制度中的重要性方面存在分歧。